Australian Market Extends Early Losses In Mid-market

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is extending its early losses in mid-market trading on Monday after opening in the green, with a relatively flat close in the previous session, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is falling below the 8,600.00 level, with weakness in financial and technology stocks partially offset by gains in mining and energy stocks.

Dozens of companies listed on the ASX were unable to release investor updates, including market-sensitive announcements, following the latest outage in a series of operational mishaps by the share market operator. The disruption impacted around 50 stocks.

ASX said it has implemented an initial remediation and has begun processing announcements received since late morning. However, earlier submissions remain affected.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 35.20 points or 0.41 percent to 8,578.90, after touching a high of 8,624.70 and a low of 8,572.90 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 40.80 points or 0.46 percent to 8,877.90. Australian stocks closed relatively flat on Friday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group is gaining more than 1 percent, while Rio Tinto is adding almost 1 percent and Fortescue is edging up 0.4 percent. Mineral Resources is declining more than 4 percent.

Oil stocks are mostly higher. Beach energy and Santos are edging up 0.4 to 0.5 percent each, while Woodside Energy and Origin Energy are gaining more than 1 percent each.

Among tech stocks, Afterpay owner Block is edging down 0.1 percent and Appen is declining more than 3 percent, while Zip and WiseTech Global are losing almost 1 percent each. Xero is advancing more than 1 percent.

Gold miners are mixed. Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 1 percent, Newmont is edging up 0.3 percent and Resolute Mining is advancing almost 2 percent, while Genesis Minerals is declining almost 2 percent and Evolution Mining is losing almost 1 percent.

Among the big four banks, Westpac and ANZ Banking Bank are losing more than 1 percent each, while Commonwealth Bank is edging down 0.3 percent and National Australia is down almost 1 percent.

In other news, shares in AUB Group are tumbling more than 17 percent after terminating takeover talks with suitors EQT and CVC.

In economic news, company gross operating profits in Australia were unchanged on a seasonally adjusted basis in the third quarter of 2025, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. That missed expectations for an increase of 1.7 percent following the downwardly revised 2.6 percent contraction in the previous three months (originally -2.4 percent). On a yearly basis, profits were up 1.1 percent.

The manufacturing sector in Australia bounced back up into expansion territory in November, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Monday with a manufacturing PMI score of 51.6. That's up from 49.7 and it moves above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.654 on Monday.